PC Ontario leader Doug Ford says he’s talked to an “endless number of teachers” who are frustrated at being dictated to by Queen’s Park about how they must teach math.

He recently told me he intends to seek input from teachers on the best way to scrap discovery math and get “back to the basics” — which means teaching students how to properly add, subtract, multiply and divide (without a calculator) by the time they leave Grade 6.

“Our Grade 6 students are still failing (in standardized math tests) … Across Ontario, 50% still aren’t at the provincial standards,” he said. “We’re going to make sure we go back to the basics.”

He said many Ontario students (in the elementary grades) still can’t do simple multiplication or long division — and if they don’t have a calculator, they’re lost.

Retired Hamilton elementary school teacher Teresa Murray agreed that the way math is currently taught is a serious problem.

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, centre, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, left, and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath take part in the Ontario Leaders debate in Toronto on Monday, May 7, 2018. This is the first of three debates scheduled before the June 7 vote.Frank Gunn /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Murray, who taught for 32 years in the Catholic school system and has been tutoring students for the past six years, said “severe damage” has been done to kids for 20 years with the current discovery math curriculum.

“There are real people who have cried on my shoulder because they see what is happening to their children day after day,” she added. “Their education has been damaged with massive amounts of money being spent.”

She said a lot more time needs to be provided to learn the basics of math in school — and rigorously learn them — without having to seek outside tutors.

But Murray figures it will take “many many years” to bring the curriculum back to where it once was.

Education consultant and former advocate Doretta Wilson said revisiting the primary math curriculum is absolutely crucial — and it will involve school boards and faculties of education underdoing a fundamental shift in how they train teachers..

Wilson noted it may mean “cleaning house at the ministry of education” because the current philosophy is so entrenched and the same education suspects at the trough keep getting recycled.

“There needs to be a real overhaul,” she added, insisting it can be done if the “right people are put in place” — those aware of the politics involved, including an education minister who understands what needs to be done to improve student learning.

Instead of getting rid of Education, Quality and Assessment Office (EQAO) testing entirely — as both Premier Kathleen Wynne and NDP leader Andrea Horwath have promised — she also feels EQAO could make the math and literacy tests far simpler than what is being administered now.

That would identify kids with problems early on and get the proper intervention.

“More importantly, let’s start teaching the right way from the very beginning,” she said.

Maureen Somers, former co-chair of the Coalition for Education Reform, stressed getting rid of EQAO testing is an “asinine solution” for dealing with poor math literacy rates.

“Both Wynne and Horwath are essentially saying they won’t raise the bridge, they will lower the water and drain the river,” she said. “I would say to Doug Ford, parents of school-aged children do want higher academic performance expectations, rigorous math learning and accountability for mediocre test results.”

Murray said reading and language instruction are “very poor” too.

“I saw a decline in everything (over the past 20 years), a loss of teacher autonomy and an increase in micromanaging,” she added.

Ford has said he’ll put a stop to giving a “ribbon” to everyone whether they pass or fail.

As he puts it: “You got to tell kids when you’re failing, you’re not doing well.”

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